Did you know? Little known facts in the Medical Marijuana Debate

1.Marijuana is classified as a Schedule 1 drug by the 1970 Controlled Substances Act, meaning it is considered to have a "high potential for abuse," "no currently accepted medical use," and "a lack of accepted safety." Rescheduling marijuana to the less restrictive Schedule II or III (45 KB) remains a contentious issue. 2.The University of Mississippi has grown marijuana (including a placebo with virtually no THC) for US government-approved research since 1968. Each year the university grows 1.5 acres, 6.5 acres, or none, depending upon demand. 3.The first cannabis-based prescription medicine, Sativex, was launched in the United Kingdom on June 21, 2010. Sativex is a mouth spray approved to treat spasticity in patients with Multiple Sclerosis. 4.Eight of the 10 states that had legalized medical marijuana by 2006 saw a decrease in teen use of marijuana from 1999 to 2006. 5.The states with the three highest possession limits among the 16 states with legal medical marijuana are Oregon (24 plants), California (18 plants), and New Mexico (16 plants). 6.Smoked or inhaled marijuana takes only a few minutes to reach the brain, where a series of cellular reactions occur that ultimately produce the "high" feeling. When eating or drinking marijuana, this process can take up to an hour. 7.When swallowing marijuana (in teas, brownies, etc.), the main active ingredient, Delta-9-THC, is transformed by the liver into the more psychoactively powerful Delta-11-THC. 8.In 1978 the US government started the Compassionate Investigational New Drug (IND) program. Although closed for new patients in 1991, it still supplies 320-360 marijuana cigarettes monthly to each of the four seriously ill patients remaining in the program. 9.According to FDA data obtained by our filing of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, marijuana was not reported as a primary cause of death at all between Jan. 1, 1997 to June 30, 2005 (the time for which the data were available). 10.The US Department of Justice, in an Oct. 19, 2009 memo, advised federal prosecutors not to target medical marijuana patients whose actions are in compliance with the law in states that have legalized medical marijuana. 11.Marijuana contains over 400 different identifiable chemical constituents, including steroids and Vitamin A. 12.The British Lung Foundation reported in Nov. 2002 that 3-4 marijuana cigarettes a day are as dangerous to the lungs as 20 or more tobacco cigarettes a day. 13.A UCLA study presented on May 24, 2006 found no association between marijuana and lung cancer, and it suggested that marijuana may even have "some protective effect." 14.Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrative Law Judge Mary Ellen Bittner ruled on Feb. 12, 2007 that "there is currently an inadequate supply of marijuana available for research purposes." 15.The 1999 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, commissioned by the US government, recommended that under certain narrow conditions marijuana should be medically available to some patients, even though "numerous studies suggest that marijuana smoke is an important risk factor in the development of respiratory disease." Read more about the report's conclusions. If you have any little known, straightforward, and interesting facts that you'd like to share, please contact us. Please include a link or reference to your source.

Marijuana 101: Does Weed Kill Brain Cells

Every so often, someone will witness me continuously push on a door when it say “pull” or spend hours looking for my ATM card while it’s in my pocket, and they will refer to me as the stupidest smart person they’ve ever met. Inevitably, they’ll attribute it to the fact that I smoke marijuana. This sucks. The thought of destroying my mind doesn’t exactly appeal to me, especially since I happen to like my brain — and like everyone else on the planet, I think I’m pretty smart. But according to popular belief, weed makes you forgetful, lazy, apathetic, and, of course, it kills your brain cells. As a lover of marijuana, memory games, classic literature, and quantum physics, I beg to differ. I’m pretty sure that President Barack Obama, Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York, Sir Richard Branson, millionaire Ted Turner, novelist Stephen King and thousands of other smart, wildly successful potheads will back me up. In 1974, the idea that marijuana damaged you physiologically came to public attention when Robert G. Heath conducted an experiment at Tulane University in New Orleans, claiming that he had sufficient proof that weed killed brain cells. Heath attested that monkeys who were given the equivalent of 30 joints per day began to wither away and die after only 90 days. Autopsies done on the monkeys after the experiment confirmed severe loss of brain cells in comparison to the control group that were not exposed to marijuana. I know what you are thinking — how in the blazes do you get a monkey to smoke 30 joints in a row? Playboy Magazine had the same question, but it took them nearly 7 years of requesting and eventually suing under the Freedom of Information Act to get a straight answer about Heath’s procedures. When they finally found out what he was doing, things started to make a little more sense. The monkeys weren’t allowed to leisurely puff on 30 joints during the span of one day, but were strapped down to chairs with transparent, air-tight boxes attached to their heads, while smoke equivalent to 63 joints was pumped into the boxes for 5 minutes. No smoke left the boxes, and neither did any carbon monoxide. The monkeys were suffocating and dying from carbon monoxide poisoning, which accounted for all the dead brain cells found in the autopsies. Talk about twisting the facts to fit one’s own evil agenda. In 1991, Morgan and Zimmer conducted their own experiment to dispel the myth that marijuana causes the death of brain cells. They found that in order to achieve any damaging results from THC, patients would have to be given 200 times the psychoactive dose. In 1992, a study by William Slikker observed that monkeys who were given 4-5 joints per day over the course of a year also failed to show any sign of brain damage. A study done in 1991 by Dr. Robert Block found that frequent marijuana use does not cause any abnormalities in brain tissue or volume of gray or white matter. Despite the good news that weed isn’t killing our brain cells, it is clear in all of these studies that marijuana in high doses interferes with the user’s ability to transfer new information in to long-term memory. Still, there is no evidence anywhere that marijuana users suffer any brain damage or permanent structural damage. So while you may be able to smoke weed and build a nuclear warhead, you may waste some time searching for the safety goggles, which are precariously balanced on top of your head.

Marijuana 101: Indoor Vs. Outdoor

>Good Information to know for all patients and those who are interested on knowing how cannabis works!!! Enjoy!!!

Indoor versus outdoor strains and growing techniques are discussed as often as Indica versus Sativa in some circles. This is particularly true among those who grow plants for themselves or others in their care. Both types are viable options, however, there are differences to mull before choosing to go with an indoor or outdoor strain. Costs, security, and various quality considerations in the flowers themselves are serious factors a patient or a caregiver should be taking into account. The main differences are obvious as the plants grow to maturity. Outdoor strains typically grow in the earth or planter pots, while indoor strains can also grow in potted soil or any number of hydroponic growth systems that are readily available. For a novice grower working on a few plants, either option is fine so long as proper growth conditions can be maintained. A big factor to consider here is security. If you cannot put your outdoor garden somewhere inaccessible to the public, indoor is going to be the choice for you. For the new or casual patient, the biggest differences in indoor and outdoor weed tend to be related to price and quality. This can be a little tricky to navigate without some basic info. Indoor strains tend to be fairly uniform when grown correctly. If a patient is carefully medicating symptoms, this is probably desirable as the effect will be consistent time and time again. Outdoor strains can vary wildly in terms of potency and taste, as well as smoke texture due to varied conditions in weather and soil composition. The cannabinoids, active parts of the cannabis that affects the nervous system, can also vary a bit between the growth types. Indoor and outdoor pricing is also a little varied, at least in L.A. Generally, these price differences are minor, but they are worth noting for patients on a tight budget. Indoor plants tend to yield flowers more often, but in limited amounts due to space constraints, while outdoor plants produce larger blooms of varied quality. This can mean significant savings on your medicine when looking at outdoor options, particularly in ounce form as there is a higher volume of supply of outdoor marijuana available. Another factor to note is that indoor strains require more complex set up costs and typically deal with higher overhead in general. Lights, fans, nutrients, and water circulation systems all cost money in terms of power and operating costs, and this can make specialty indoor strains cost a bit more. This also adds a higher carbon footprint to indoor yields, something many eco-conscious patients might want to consider. Indoor strains are generally more controllable, leading to unique tastes and cannabinoid contents tailored and refined by the grower themselves. Outdoor strains pick up unique or exotic cannabinoids as well as flavor and color differences due to the soil and growth conditions; this can be very beneficial to patients who prefer varied intensities and types of medication. Indoor or outdoor, testing out a gram before buying an ounce is always advisable. When looking for savings in bulk, make sure the outdoor suits your needs and are taking care of your individual medicinal requirements. When growing, keep security, space, and budget in mind. Always check for rot, mold, and outside irritants, and check outdoor even more carefully.

The Stoner Experience: Anxiety and Weed

The Stoner Experience is a new column in which writers will offer their personal experiences with marijuana in the hopes of offering some insight into how weed affects people differently in various situations, and how it can also affect us all so similarly. It was a Friday night, it was summer, and the weather was a delightful 70 degrees or so. I had just smoked a few bowls with some friends at a party and felt stoned as hell. I was content for the moment until a drunk girl began talking to me. Now, I don’t know about you, but when I’m around drunk people and I’m not drunk, their behavior goes from annoying to frustrating quite quickly. In this particular scenario the girl talked without any break or pause and left no possibility for comment. What started happening in my head was regrettable. I suddenly became increasingly aware of myself, my palms began to sweat, and my heart began to palpitate. I was stuck talking to this girl and I didn’t have an opportunity to excuse myself without seeming rude. And, it was freaking me out. God knows it seems stupid now, but being rude to a friend of a friend seemed like social suicide at the time and I didn’t want to commit it. So, I began to panic. Ultimately, what I ended up doing was literally running away while she continued to discuss whatever it was that she was saying. That incident, along with a few others around the same time, caused me to blame the weed for my anxiety. Now, I had already been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and I knew that the weed had little to do with it, but I gave up my ten-year love affair with herb in the hope of releasing myself from some of this anxiety. Of course this hiatus didn’t last more than a year because, let’s face it, sometimes you just get bored and there’s nothing better to do than smoke a little weed. What I’ve found is that the paranoia people experience when on weed is amplified exponentially if you suffer from anxiety. While weed can have a calming and relaxing effect for some people, if you suffer from anxiety, it can work against you. I find that moderation is the key. I now only smoke two hits at a time. That way I get stoned but I don’t lose myself in paranoid thought or catastrophic thinking. Now, there are times where I still feel the cold sting of anxiety creep up on me while stoned but since I’m only a little bit high, I can justify the anxiety away without freaking out. If you find yourself having a full blown panic attack on weed, it can be damaging but try to remind yourself that you’re just high and that the high will wear off. If you find that every time you smoke you feel uncomfortable and you can’t control your own thoughts, you may want to think about moderating your intake. Do you suffer from anxiety and also enjoy marijuana? If so, please share your story below. Do you disagree and think that weed helps with your anxiety?